Voters weigh transit issues in fall

Sales tax increase would fund 20% expansion in bus service

Published 10:00 pm, Tuesday, September 5, 2006

King County voters will decide this fall whether they want to pay about $25 more a year in sales tax to expand countywide bus service again.

In Seattle, that means city voters will have two transportation measures before them in November -- the bus levy and a proposed property tax to help pay for a $1.6 billion package to repave streets and finance other improvements.

County Council members voted 8-1 Tuesday to place County Executive Ron Sims' bus-expansion package on the ballot Nov. 7. The proposal is to spend $568 million over 10 years in what Sims has called the biggest infusion of cash ever into the county's Metro bus system.

The measure will raise the sales tax by 0.1 of 1 percent, about one penny on a $10 purchase, and would cost an average county household about $25 annually, the county estimates. A simple majority would put the tax increase into place, making it the second transit-expansion sales tax increase in six years.

As commuters deal with big-league congestion and $3-a-gallon gas prices, they look for alternatives and "people are demanding more bus service," said Councilwoman Julia Patterson, chairwoman of the council's transportation committee. "I hear that everywhere I go."

All five council Democrats and three of its Republican members voted to put the measure on the ballot. Councilman Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, called the proposal "a bargain" to taxpayers at an average of $25 per year per family to expand service 20 percent.

Related Stories

Metro officials have said the proposal, if approved, would allow them to add 175 new buses and carry more than 20 million more riders each year. Part of the proposal is to add "bus rapid transit" service with 10-minute service along five major corridors: Aurora Avenue North, the West Seattle Bridge and California Avenue south to Morgan Junction and from Ballard on 15th Avenue Northwest to south Queen Anne Hill in Seattle.

Other rapid-transit routes would extend from Federal Way to Tukwila on state Route 99 and from Bellevue to Redmond on Northeast Eighth and 156th Avenue via Crossroads and Overlake. Part of the plan is to tie bus service to Sound Transit light rail, including a new rail station at Tukwila.

The measure also would allow some cities to add bus service by putting up money for it that would be matched by Metro and could include cash from private businesses or institutions, such as Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center. That would allow some areas to get more bus service than would normally come under the county's new-hour allocation policies.

The hospital, in particular, is now "increasingly dependent on regional transit," said assistant hospital governmental affairs director Desiree Leigh.

Sims has called the proposal the "largest infusion of new (bus) service in more than two decades," and Metro has said current bus service isn't expected to keep up with the anticipated job growth in the county. "The only complaint I hear about bus service is ... there ain't enough of it," council President Larry Phillips said.

Backers said more bus service is needed not only to serve growth, but also to provide commuting alternatives during major construction projects on other highways such as the Evergreen Point Bridge, Interstate 405 and the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

The one dissenting vote against placing the measure on the ballot was Republican Councilman Reagan Dunn. Dunn said Metro didn't live up to its promise to add 575,000 hours of bus service annually after voters approved a 0.2 of 1 percent sales tax boost in 2000.